New Management for Karachi Falconsby Hasan Khan, Sports Editor (Karachi Dawn)11 August 2104Hopes arose in Karachi last year when the Falcons suddenly posted their first ever winning record in the Intercontinental Baseball League (IBL) of the World Baseball Association (WBA). Interest in the team rose significantly. The outlook was positive.
Then the world fell apart as it so often does in unstable Pakistan. Management abandoned the team, and control was delegated to an artificial intelligence model introduced by a strange alliance between the Karachi City Council and Pakistan's infamous Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Agency. That model has been an unmitigated disaster, and the City Council has disassociated itself from the everyday management of the team. Desperate to rid itself of an embarrassing involvement, the ISI has been looking for someone . . . anyone, really . . . to take over the struggling franchise. Officially the ISI denies ever having been involved in team operations.
Now the Karachi Falcons have been acquired by the Atlas Group, a famous Pakistani conglomerate noted for its investments in the financial and automotive industries The Falcons will represent its first venture into sports management. Atlas has appointed a management team imported from the United States and Japan that brings in significant experience in baseball operations.
In its initial press conference, the new management team stressed the need for patience and encouraged local fans to support the team immediately as it begins its quest to not only return to the ICB playoff picture next season but to challenge for supremacy in the WBA as well. The initial impetus will be to rid itself of a significant number of major league contracts. The Falcons have over 70 players signed to major league contracts in a world where a 40-man roster is both the rule and the norm. The artificial intelligence model seems to have no qualms about signing players to contracts only to waive them from the roster and sign even more players. It's easy to get them off the 40-man roster, but that does not remove the obligation to continue paying out the contracts.
About ten players have already been released after the team paid off the contract obligations. A dozen or so more have been offered (and initially rejected) minor league contracts for next season. They will fall off the books at the end of the year. And another dozen odd players on one-year deals will not be offered any type of renewal, and they too will fall into the free agency pool at season's end.
The Karachi Dawn has been designated the official news source for the team. Stay tuned here for more news as it unfolds.
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